Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose contributions Wooden  ignored and tried to bury.

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. The players tell their stories in their own words.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information. Also available on Kindle.

Sports Medley: More revelations about Joe Mixon 13 Feb 17

by Tony Medley

More reasons why the NFL should shun Joe Mixon: Oklahoma’s running back Joe Mixon has declared for the NFL draft. He’s the one who shattered Amelia Molitor’s face with a brutal, vicious blow, was treated with kid gloves by Oklahoma and the NCAA, and given a fond farewell by former ESPN sportscaster Brent Musburger (who retired shortly after the game; could the negative reaction to his insensitive comment been the reason?). Her interview with the police was recently released, and here’s what she said,

“They were commenting on how I looked.  It was just, like, very uncomfortable. It was degrading in a way, the things they were saying to me. Like I was a piece of meat and I don’t take kindly to that.

“So my first reaction was to laugh. I was like, bye leave me alone … and he said — Joe said something along the lines of ‘You’d rather go home with this little [homophobic slur] than me?’ And I’d already started to get mad, like who do you think you’re talking to? And as soon as they said that I got very angry. I remember being called a few names that weren’t very nice, I’m pretty sure.”

According to Yahoo Sports, Molitor said she was called a “b—-” and a “w—-” by Mixon and his friends, and that they continued to make sexual comments toward her and a male friend. Molitor continued,

“So when I said ‘I never in a million years would go anywhere with you,’ he said ‘So you’d rather go home with that f—— f—–?’ And I got really mad. So I faced Joe and I was just like ‘don’t f— with me. Don’t mess with me. Don’t mess with my friend. Just don’t. Just stop, go away.’ And he was like ‘Oh, you’re a bad b—-, what are you going to do about it?'”

Mixon apparently has not been invited to the NFL combine. But keep a watch on the draft, especially Kansas City who drafted Tyree Hill after he pled guilty to domestic abuse by strangulation. What did hill do? He tried to strangle his pregnant girlfriend. But, hey, that’s OK with the Kansas City Chiefs. It won’t affect his ability to return kicks for them. Based on his eagerness in drafting Hill, Mixon is exactly the kind of creep coach Andy Reid wants on his team.

Risky stunts at UCLA: Whenever I attend a UCLA basketball game I am aghast at the pyramid building routine putting on by the UCLA song girls. One of them gets to the top of the pyramid standing on the shoulders of people who are also standing on the shoulders of other people, so she is at least 12 to 18 feet off the floor, maybe higher.

She then falls into the arms of a waiting male cheerleader, who catches her. It always seems to be an enormously dangerous stunt to be performed by teenaged women (or anyone). At last Thursday’s UCLA Oregon basketball game one of the young women fell off the pyramid, and landed on her back and neck. Then, when one of the male cheerleaders picked her up and ran off before with her (which he should not have done), he tripped on a towel and she crashed to the floor again. These stunts are unnecessarily dangerous. UCLA should ban them and limit the timeout activities of the song girls and cheerleaders to dancing.

Last Super Bowl Comment: Not to degrade New England’s victory, but the Patriots are the luckiest team in the history of football. Their last two Super Bowl victories have come directly from two of the dumbest coaching decisions ever made on an athletic field. Seattle was one yard away from a winning touchdown in the waning seconds of the 2015 Super Bowl when bonehead coach Pete Carroll inexplicably called a pass instead of handing the ball to the best runner in the game. Then double-bonehead Falcons coaches called a pass on second and 11 on the Patriots’ 21 instead of running the clock and kicking the victory-ensuring field goal. Maybe New England deserved to win both games, but both games were as lost as they could be when they were both presented as sheer unexpected gifts from their bozo opponents. For it to happen once would seem to be a once in a lifetime occurrence. But for it to happen twice in three years makes one wonder if Faust is somehow involved.